Top Reasons Why Designers & Developers Are Moving to Mac OS X

Mac OS X has become something of a cult phenomenon among designers and developers, and many schools with a focus on digital arts and design actually require that students have access to, or prior knowledge of, Apple Macs. Even over the past few years, there has been an exodus among developers who formerly used Windows exclusively for their main machine.

Here are five reasons why designers and developers are moving to Mac OS X as their primary operating system, and Apple for their machines.

1. Superior built-in tools

The built-in utilities found on Apple encourage design and development from the very start. The utility Grab makes it easy to capture a screenshot. From any view, you can press three or four keys to get one of several types of screenshots. DigitalColor Meter allows you to find the color value of any pixel on your screen immediately, for painless color matching. Time Machine backs up your computer on its own and reminds you when your external hard drive is shut down and it can't write backups.

2. Easy complete system

If you want to get started fast, running Mac OS X on an Apple machine is the easiest way to go. Hardware, software, and OS come together to make for a quick installation without having to fiddle around endlessly to customize. You can easily import the contents of an older computer or start afresh, and Apple includes software suites and the operating system with its new computers. If you want to customize, there are many paid or free programs available to tweak very specific aspects of your operating system according to your needs, though you can't build a Mac from the ground up.

3. Quick views with Spaces and Expose

Do you often find yourself working with many windows? Spaces and Expose are designed to help you fix the problems that come with having too many windows at once. You can operate separate groups of windows with Spaces and easily switch between them, so one design project can live on one Space while you work on coding in another and have a third for your personal apps and games. Expose allows you to get a quick glance at all the windows you have open without pausing or shutting down anything that's currently playing.

4. Easy, intuitive gestures

You can left-click or right-click easily on any new Mac trackpad (unlike older models, which had just one button), and you can use many types of gestures to easily scroll, zoom, pinch, open Exposé, or do any one of a number of customizable functions. If you're tired of hunting for the plus button so you can zoom in, this will be good news!

5. Open-source software

The entire philosophy of Apple is more accepting of open-source software than Microsoft. Linux and Mac apps are easily able to exchange data, and many free programs exist that rival Apple software if you'd rather avoid purchasing these applications (or if you just prefer the free versions, which can sometimes be just as well-supported).

These are just five of the reasons many web designers and developers find themselves tempted to switch to Mac OS X – and often end up falling in love with the experience of using Mac OS X on an Apple machine!

Author Bio:

Guest post contributed by Nick Myers on behalf of mackeeper.zeobit.com. Nick is software engineer and a freelance technology writer. He writes for various online publications where he likes to keep his readers up to date on the latest technological advancements.